Ng Pok Kong

Ng Pok Kong was born in 1951 and was raised in Kowloon City where he first began to make sense of the world around him. It was said that before the war Ng Pok Kong’s family had two houses in Nga Tsin Wai village which were adjacent to Ng Chin Hung’s home. Both properties were eventually sold during the Japanese occupation. Ng Pok Kong’s family also owned lot of land they rented out in order to make money. His elders just sat by, gradually watching as their land dwindled away. Ng Pok Kong’s grandfather studied at Queen’s College and did not really work at a proper job after graduation, instead relying on the rent received from the land, farming and raising pigs for his living. The old man was regarded as a fop who lived a carefree life and left his wife to take up all the burdens of work around the house and farm.

Ng Pok Kong’s grandfather had four wives in quick succession, remarrying each time his previous wife died. His first wife gave birth to Ng Pok Kong’s first and second aunt and eldest uncle. A second wife, surnamed Chan from Lamma Island, gave birth to Ng Pok Kong’s third aunt while a third wife, surnamed Wong from Tseng Lan Shue, gave birth to Ng Pok Kong’s father and was Ng Pok Kong’s official grandmother. The old man’s fourth and final wife gave birth to Ng Pok Kong’s two younger uncles and two younger aunts. Ng Pok Kong was one year older than the eldest of these two younger uncles. Ng Pok Kong had never seen his first, second or third grandmothers and also did not know whereabouts of his fourth grandmother’s hometown.

Ng Pok Kong’s grandfather was much better educated than his fellow villagers. The fact that he lived on the periphery of Nga Tsin Wai may well have further added to his high regard of himself. When Ng Pok Kong was small, he often visited his grandfather’s home in Chung Sum Nam Street near Tung Tau Village. Early on, the old man had drawn up building plans for a two-storey cottage on whose upper floor he and his family would live. Ng Pok Kong’s grandfather liked raising bees and had a large pretty potted plant with a fisherman doll figure sitting on its edge and “fishing”! The lower floor was leased out to people who raised pigs which created a very unpleasant smell. When the Government started resuming control of land in and around the village in the mid-1950s, it purchased the old man’s small cottage. The family then moved into Block 14 of Tung Tau Resettlement Estate.

Ng Pok Kong’s family members were educated people who did not care about the village or clan affairs and seldom took the villagers’ side. However, should there be any important decisions to be reached in the village, his grandfather would play a major role. As educated people enjoyed a high status within the village walls and the old man was a senior elder, he was regarded as having supreme authority by other residents. As a result, his fellow villagers dared not dispute his words or actions. One day, Ng Pok Kong’s grandfather decreed that the open space behind the new ancestral hall (Editor’s note: the present Ng Clan Ancestral Hall) be leased to either a grocery store or fruit shop with he himself pocketing the rent. He continued to profit from this arrangement for many decades. After the old man passed away in the mid-1970s, the rental income passed to Ng Pok Kong’s father. When village affairs later became more transparent, some residents raised objections and the bulk of the rent was then became public income. Even so, a few hundred dollars per month was still allotted for Ng Pok Kong’s grandmother’s living expenses.

Ng Pok Kong’s eldest uncle graduated from Wah Yan College, Kowloon and worked as a translator in the police force. A gentleman famed for his manner and style, the uncle had two wives. The first of these gave birth to a son and three daughters, all of who were Ng Pok Kong’s cousins. The mother of a son and two daughters, his second wife lived in Kam Tin where there was also a local Ng Ka Tsuen. After they got married, his eldest uncle and his first wife lived in Sai Yeung Choi Street in Mong Kok. Ng Pok Kong’s cousin dropped out of school after primary graduation and subsequently joined the police force. He was a sergeant when he retired before emigrating to the US. Ng Pok Kong was very familiar with his cousin at the age of 20-plus. As Ng Pok Kong’s eldest uncle’s wife liked playing mahjong, Ng Pok Kong sometimes joined games at gatherings held by his eldest uncle’s family members. Ng Pok Kong had seen the two daughters of his eldest uncle’s second wife when the girls had visited the Jiao festivities in Nga Tsin Wai village and met the other relatives. Ng Pok Kong never got to see his second elder uncle who died while still a young man.

Ng Pok Kong’s father was born in 1928 and was the third son in the family. Ng Pok Kong’s grandfather still owned land early on and his father helped him to collect rent. Ng Pok Kong’s father later enrolled in Tai Tung Middle School after primary graduation. In 1941, Hong Kong fell to the Japanese while Ng Pok Kong’s father was in Form 1. He later became an electrical apprentice after dropping out of school and then subsequently performed field duties such as maintenance and the laying of cables for CLP. The field work was very demanding and dangerous as he was expected to complete his allotted tasks even if a No. 10 typhoon signal was hoisted. Originally from Nanhai, Ng Pok Kong’s mother came to Hong Kong from the Mainland during World War Two. Two years older than Ng Pok Kong’s father, she had five children. When he was a baby, Ng Pok Kong lived with his parents in Nam Kok Road, Kowloon City. But when he grew into a toddler, he moved to his aunts’ houses in Nga Tsin Wai village for a few days during his relatives’ festive celebrations. Back then, the village was so dark at night one could barely see one’s hand in front of one’s face. This made Ng Pok Kong very frightened.

There was a huge sewer (Editor’s note: now Kai Tak Nullah) opposite the village. During his childhood days, he and his two younger uncles often used to fish here, using cans to catch small fish and tadpoles. The nullah was like a small river with no fence on either side where one could jump into the water. Ng Pok Kong’s family rented space on the mezzanine floor of a three-storey tenement building in Nam Kok Road as their home. The dwelling was divided into four rooms, one of which was occupied by Ng Pok Kong’s family. Ng Pok Kong’s eldest aunt and her husband were the principal tenants here. The floor below was also divided into several rooms which were shared by about 30 children plus a clog shop and a chicken stall.

When Ng Pok Kong’s parents heard that the Government planned to begin demolishing Chung Sum Nam Street, they took their children to stay in the home of Ng Pok Kong’s grandfather. Every evening after dinner, the kids would go there taking their school bags along with them. Ng Pok Kong’s parents hoped that the staff of the Resettlement Department would come to conduct a site survey and eventually allocate them a unit on an estate. In this way, the whole family set out from Nam Kok Road taking muddy roads and passing through an ox bone factory and a blacksmith shop en route. Walking at night, stones and pools of water were reflected under the moonlight, but not the mud. Back then, no farmland could be seen. On one windy night, Ng Pok Kong’s family stayed at home blissfully unaware that Resettlement Department staff would come to Chung Sum Nam Street to conduct inspections that very evening. As a result, they missed their chance of being resettled in public housing. When Ng Pok Kong began studying Form 2, his father who was then working as a CLP technician was allocated staff quarters and the whole family moved to Tai Po Road in Sham Shui Po. 

Ng Pok Kong studied in Lok Sin Tong Primary School in Lung Kong Road at Primary 1 before transferring to Bishop Ford Memorial School for Primary 2. Bishop Ford was a Catholic school, located in a Christian cemetery at the top of a hill in Pui Man Street. As the teachers occasionally distributed oil, rice, flour, noodles and other foodstuffs to students, Ng Pok Kong’s mother enrolled her son there to take advantage of these benefits. Ng Pok Kong’s school results were quite good and he generally always ranked in his class’s top ten students. As he was quite a mischievous child, he was sometimes detained after school for fighting during recess. Bishop Ford ran both morning and afternoon schools. Since Ng Pok Kong studied in the morning school, he had to wait until 6:00 pm after the afternoon school was dismissed before he could serve his “detention”. This necessitated his making a special trip back to the school. Ng Pok Kong didn’t mind such punishments as his mother gave him ten cents pocket money to buy food. Whenever he was held behind by teachers, he would come back to school at 5:00 pm, playing on the hill and nearby mound rather than with the other neighbouring kids in Nam Kok Road. Ng Pok Kong’s second younger brother also attended Bishop Ford, while a third younger brother studied at a primary school in Sham Shui Po where the family all now lived. His two younger sisters studied at Lo Fu Ngam Government Primary School. Nga Tsin Wai also had a school of its own, but Ng Pok Kong’s grandfather and father had not considered sending him there so as to avoid getting involved in clan affairs. As a child, Ng Pok Kong had no strong feelings about Nga Tsin Wai and Bishop Ford had no other students from the village.

Ng Pok Kong’s father seldom talked about clan affairs to his children, only occasionally casually mentioning it in passing to Ng Pok Kong. Back then, when the Ng clansmen paid respects to Ng Shing Tat Tso, the whole family including a cousin called Ng Pui Sum returned to the ancestral hall for worship. When Ng Pok Kong was young, females were not allowed to enter the ancestral hall and had to watch the ceremony from the side while preparing various sacrificial offerings. Children entering into the ancestral hall were also scolded and chased away by the elders, but Ng Pok Kong still managed to sneak in and grab pieces of roasted pork for his mother!

Ng Shing Tat Tso was divided into four branches with each branch taking turns to preside over the ceremony. The Ceremonial Master was responsible for buying the offerings and had some rewards. Until it came for the third branch of the Ng Tai Un Tso line to officiate, Ng Pok Kong had never seen his grandfather preside over a ceremony or his eldest uncle so actively involved in clan affairs. Mostly, it was Ng Pok Kong’s father who acted in such capacities if only in name as all the work was actually done by Ng Shui Chuen’s wife who prepared the pork, chicken and other offerings. Ng Pok Kong’s father did however lead the first incense offering during the official worship. Not really minding who paid their respects first, various uncles of different branches but the same seniority stood by his side.

Ng Pok Kong’s father often sighed that the third branch had only a small membership consisting of just two families of more than 10 members, whereas the fourth branch had hundreds of people. Ng Pok Kong did not know much about the people in his branch. It was only after his father’s death that he took over the running of the third branch and had more contact with peers such as Ng Chi Wing and Ng Siu Kei. The other family of the third branch was Ng Shui Chuen’s family of whom Ng Pok Kong had only ever met the father and his son. Ng Shui Chuen was a member of the police force’s Criminal Investigation Department and lived in Nga Tsin Wai before later moving to Tsz Wan Shan. The man had three sons, the eldest of whom was a marine police officer and the second of whom ran a business on the Mainland. The remaining son worked as a nurse in the Hospital Authority. The third branch held very few gatherings and really only met when they returned to the village for the Spring and Autumn Worship or for village meetings. If there was any news about Nga Tsin Wai, Ng Pok Kong would generally update Ng Shui Chuen’s son by telephone.

After his graduation from primary school, Ng Pok Kong enrolled in Kowloon Technical School where he studied for the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination. He eventually graduated with nine passes, obtaining Grade C scores in Geography. To be accepted for civil service posts in those days, one only required passes in the three subjects of Chinese, English and Mathematics, so Ng Pok Kong’s results were more than enough. He was subsequently admitted to Hong Kong Technical College (now Hong Kong Polytechnic University) where he majored in surveying on a three-year course. He made several bad friends in his first year and often skipped lectures to play bridge. He dropped out after his first year and successfully applied for a civil service post in logistics in 1971. His father later asked him to repeat Form 6 at Matteo Ricci College (later Heung Kong College). At this time, his family’s quality of life was not too bad even though they were not terribly well off. Unmotivated in his studies, Ng Pok Kong just wanted to have fun and wound up studying at Matteo Ricci for just one month. He eventually took classes at Hong Kong Polytechnic at his own expense during his spare time, completing both a certificate and advanced certificate course in store management which helped advance his civil service pay grade.

Ng Pok Kong’s second younger brother completed his own matriculation at Ying Wa College and unsuccessfully sat a university entrance examination. He eventually successfully applied for a civil service job in 1970. Ng Pok Kong’s third younger brother graduated from TVB’s 8th Artist Training Class, playing some second or third billed roles before trying his hand at a variety of odd jobs. Coming from a patriarchal home, Ng Pok Kong’s two younger sisters were forced to work to support the family and help pay for their brothers’ schooling. The older of the two younger sisters did not further her studies after primary graduation due to poor family conditions. She eventually found work as a linking machine operator in a factory, a reputable trade which paid a good wage back then. After her own primary graduation, Ng Pok Kong’s smallest younger sister took a position in the garment industry – another popular career choice at that time.

Ng Pok Kong believed himself to be an “urban walled villager” who had departed from the traditional customs of his spiritual home. He had never performed the lantern lighting ritual to mark the birth of his son, preferring to just add his boy’s name to the clan genealogies. He was also not sure whether the lantern lighting ritual was performed when he himself was born. His grandfather and father rarely took an interest in village affairs. That said, as the manager of the third branch, his father would return to Nga Tsin Wai on both the Birthday of Tin Hau and Jiao Festival. The old man did not take his children to attend the former celebration, only letting them back to the village to pay respects to their ancestors and visit various Festival. Ng Pok Kong has no memories of the Tin Hau Festivals of his younger years. He really only started to get involved more recently after he became the third branch’s manager. As a child, Ng Pok Kong did not really comprehend the meaning of the Jiao rituals, but adored the festive trappings such as the wooden doll puppet shows, parades and tasty vegetarian meals.

As all his family members were Catholics, Ng Pok Kong had been baptised when he was born. While his mother and younger brothers and sisters were all devout Catholics, Ng Pok Kong considered himself to be the “black sheep” of the family when it came to religious matters. As the representative of the third branch, he had to burn incense to worship the Goddess of the Sea during the Tin Hau Festival. Such practices were in direct contravention of Catholic doctrines. As Ng Pok Kong felt such rituals were more a question of ceremony than belief, he did not have too much of an issue. He also thought that as grave sweeping was a show of respects to one’s ancestors it could not really contravene the Catholic faith.

When Ng Pok Kong’s father died in 2009, he assumed the old man’s post as the manager of the third branch. It was around about now that he started returning to Nga Tsin Wai more frequently. While his father rarely did more than occasionally mention village affairs to him in passing, Ng Pok Kong felt that the old man wanted him to succeed him as manager. Though his father did not say so directly, he did give out hints and he seemed to have an unspoken understanding about the succession with his son. After Ng Pok Kong retired in 2006, his father started talking about village affairs with him more often. He also instructed Ng Pok Kong to start attending the meetings of the village office and ancestral hall. Ng Pok Kong’s father did not tell his son’s younger brothers or Ng Shui Chuen’s descendants who also belonged to the third branch to attend the meetings. As a result, Ng Pok Kong felt an urging that he should take over from his father.

After the old man’s death, Ng Pok Kong consulted the third branch clansmen, asking them to sign a consent form to agree to his taking on the newly vacated post. Everyone readily agreed to sign and Ng Pok Kong returned the consent forms to Sai Kung District Office to complete the succession formalities. At this time, his cousin had already emigrated to the U.S. and completely trusted Ng Pok Kong to act in everyone’s best interests. According to seniority precedents, one of Ng Pok Kong’s two younger uncles should really have become the third branch manager. That said, each brother only rarely returned to the village to pay their respects to their dead mother at the village’s ancestral hall during Chung Yeung Festival. (Editor’s note: The ashes of Ng Pok Kong’s two grandmothers and his eldest uncle’s wife had been placed in the ancestral hall at the insistence of his father and grandfather). Of all the third branch clansmen, Ng Pok Kong had the highest educational attainments. That said, apart from his cousin, Ng Pok Kong was the oldest in age and was the person who spent most time participating in village affairs. Inspired by his father, Ng Pok Kong’s election as manager of the third branch could be said to be the result of an “unwritten understanding”. After each meeting, Ng Pok Kong reported matters that had been discussed to his fellow third branch clansmen. Besides informing his younger brothers, he also informed Ng Shui Chuen’s son by telephone.

As a child Ng Pok Kong only rarely told others that he hailed from Nga Tsin Wai village, simply saying that he was a “Hongkonger”. When required to fill in the native town section of his student handbook, he wrote down “Baoan” instead of “Nga Tsin Wai”. He was curious as to why he did not have an ancestral home like other people. He told others that his ancestors had been in Hong Kong for hundreds of years. Located at Wong Tai Sin (Editor’s note: the back of Nga Tsin Wai village) was an ancestral hall for people surnamed Ng, but Ng Pok Kong felt no particular sense of belonging to it. During his childhood Ng Pok Kong did not know the office-bearers of the Nga Tsin Wai Village Committee, but joked that they might have been involved in a past fight! When Ng Pok Kong returned to the ancestral hall to pay his respects to his ancestors back then, he saw clansmen aged 30 or 40 who disliked each other intently. Each subsequently said bad things about one and other’s fathers’ doings. Such altercations often lead to physical fights. In the past Ng Pok Kong was unaware of who the village headman was. He also did not recognise the names of his clansmen and nor did other villagers seem to know him. To this day, he is still not very knowledgeable about the kinship of the clansmen and remains unfamiliar with village affairs. Feeling like an outsider, it is therefore very difficult for him to integrate into village life properly.

Ng Pok Kong was busy with work when younger and only really had time to devote to village affairs after he retired. This growing involvement slowly gave rise to his idea of tracing his ancestral roots. Ng Pok Kong had learned from his father that his family’s roots lay in Nga Tsin Wai. He consciously thought that he had the responsibility to succeed his father as the third branch manager in retaining Nga Tsin Wai’s memories. Although he has few contacts with other third branch clansmen and the third branch has no houses or land, he cannot deny or dissolve it because it is the repository of his spiritual roots. However, the next generation of his family seems to have little interest in participating in village affairs on any level. After all, young people have different ideas about how life should be lived.

In returning to the village for meetings in recent years, Ng Pok Kong has been keen to fulfill his obligations. Participating in village meetings has also triggered his memories of his past life there, even if today’s issues do not seem that closely related. Ng Pok Kong confesses that as an emotional person, he has returned several times to renew his memories of his time at Bishop Ford Memorial School. During one visit, the school was hosting an anniversary celebration. When the teachers heard that Ng Pok Kong was an alumnus, they eagerly entertained and made him feel very warm. Ng Pok Kong has retained a memory of life in the walled village. He recalls how elders like his grandfather and parents used to describe girls as “fecal basket pellets” in the Punti dialect! While cute, such a choice of words carried a hint of blame. After Ng Pok Kong’s younger brother’s daughters were born, he began using this phrase to describe the baby girls despite the fact their father was unfamiliar with the term.